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Can You Make a Social Networking Website WITHOUT a Database?

Hey Guys
Thanks for clicking on my thread!
I want to make a social networking website for my daughter, Rosabella and her friends (she also chose my username). I'd like to make a website for them without using mySQL or any database. I have watched some tutorials on youtube, and I think you use it for people who want to signup for it. But I actually want to prevent strangers from going onto the website so I was thinking that maybe I would already have the accounts done (including username, password). Maybe you guys know how this works? * I don't want to spend any money

I'm insanely confused why you would want to do this without a database. You would use the database for more than just the login information, it would be storing all of the "interactions" as well, like sending messages to each other, etc.

In theory you COULD do this without a database by reading and writing from text files or something, but that'd be complicating it by like 1,000&#37;.

I'm insanely confused why you would want to do this without a database. You would use the database for more than just the login information, it would be storing all of the "interactions" as well, like sending messages to each other, etc.

In theory you COULD do this without a database by reading and writing from text files or something, but that'd be complicating it by like 1,000%.

Thank you very much. I just did not really know how I would like, connect the database with my website. Does that even make sense? Sorry!

User authorization is just one of many things you might use a database for. You would also use it for storing all the messages the members post and any other data that needs to persist beyond a single page access. The fact that you use it to authorize logins does not mean you have to provide a user registration page/system. You could manually create user accounts via a login-controlled admin page, or just use your web host's database tool (likely phpMyAdmin if using MySQL).

"Please give us a simple answer, so that we don't have to think, because if we think, we might find answers that don't fit the way we want the world to be."
~ Terry Pratchett in Nation

Thank you very much. I just did not really know how I would like, connect the database with my website. Does that even make sense? Sorry!

PHP and MySQL work very nicely with each other. There are tons of tutorials out there for learning how to connect them, it's pretty easy.

Trying to develop a whole social networking site on your own though... that's a big task. Of course, you wouldn't need all of the options of Facebook or anything like that.

As NogDog says though, just because you run it off of a database doesn't mean that you have to allow users to sign up. I ran my video game site as an invite-only site for years before I made it public.

PHP and MySQL work very nicely with each other. There are tons of tutorials out there for learning how to connect them, it's pretty easy.

Trying to develop a whole social networking site on your own though... that's a big task. Of course, you wouldn't need all of the options of Facebook or anything like that.

As NogDog says though, just because you run it off of a database doesn't mean that you have to allow users to sign up. I ran my video game site as an invite-only site for years before I made it public.

Well, I use **********, and I'm STILL not really that sure how it works. But I think I can do it

Thank you very much. I just did not really know how I would like, connect the database with my website. Does that even make sense? Sorry!

If you are only at that stage in your web development learning, you're probably not ready to make a social networking site from scratch. You might want to consider simply setting up an open-source web forum where your daughter and friends could make posts, share pictures, etc.

You might be able to find one that has an option where all user registrations have to be approved by an admin account, or maybe registration can be easily disabled.

"Please give us a simple answer, so that we don't have to think, because if we think, we might find answers that don't fit the way we want the world to be."
~ Terry Pratchett in Nation